The one-day workshop was attended by close to 50 people from federations in Zimbabwe, India, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Botswana, Indonesia, the Philippines and host Namibia, as well as governors, town and regional councillors from most of these countries.

Yesterday's meeting focused on exchanging experiences and on getting local authorities to work with organised communities on land tenure for poorer people.

However, in the run-up to the workshop the group held a series of meetings over the weekend on problems facing the poor and the homeless.

"The main topic that we have to address is how we can get our respective local authorities to understand the problems facing poor, homeless people, in order to get them to join us in exploring possibilities and avenues for improvement," said Edith Mbanga, National Co-ordinator of the Shack Dwellers' Federation of Namibia.

Mbanga complained that the delivery of land to the poor had been a slow, painstaking exercise and that a lot needed to be done to improve the situation.

Fatima Munotiyi of the Zimbabwe Homeless People's Federation told Nampa that the biggest challenge for her federation was to cultivate a clearer understanding among town councils of the problems the poor face.

"In Zimbabwe, the municipalities were denying poor people land to construct their houses on, mainly because they lacked proper understanding of the exchange grouping concept adopted by the poor with an aim of ensuring that they could afford to buy land and build homes," she said.

The Homeless Peoples' Federations have recommitted themselves to working hard in order to ensure that land is made more affordable and that poorer people will be allowed to move in and develop their land at a faster pace than is currently possible. - Nampa

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